This invention is concerned with the cooking of foodstuffs. More particularly, this invention relates to improvements in coating formulations pertaining to the art of deep-frying.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/024,108, filed Feb. 17, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,048, Thomas Hunter and Neil Trager described a process for preparing a unified serving of a coated food. The process described in that application comprises providing multiple pieces of a food to be cooked, coating each piece with an expandable batter, immersing the coated pieces in a mold in a deep-frying medium in order to cook the food, expand the batter, and join the battered pieces into a shaped food product that reflects the shape of the mold, and removing the shaped food product from the deep-frying medium and the mold. The disclosure of said application Ser. No. 09/024,108 is expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate a cooking vessel in accordance with the invention of Ser. No. 09/024,108. The cooking vessel of FIG. 2 is made of flat metal. FIG. 3 shows a sectional side view, along line 3xe2x80x943 of FIG. 2, of the same cooking vessel. As shown in FIG. 3, the cooking vessel takes the form of a basket 40 having a flat-bottomed interior 21, a flat-bottomed exterior 25, a substantially vertical outer wall 22, and an inner ring 42 with substantially vertical walls 23. FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the same basket 40. In FIG. 2, apertures 41 are visible.
Hunter and Trager recognized in principle that binding together of frozen or defrosted pieces of food into a unitary shaped food product could be facilitated by spraying them with a thin batter or water mist, see page 3, lines 11-20, of Ser. No. 09/024,108. No further information is given in that application regarding the thin batter or water mist. We have now discovered thin batter mist formulations that are particularly well suited for the facilitation of the binding together of frozen or defrosted pieces of food in the context of the preparation of unified servings of deep-fried foodstuffs, both in the xe2x80x9cback-of-the-housexe2x80x9d or restaurant context and in the context of large scale processor applications.
The coating formulations of the present invention provide an adhesive effect that enhances points of contact between the individual pieces of food to be joined in deep-fried unified food servings, for instance as described in application Ser. No. 09/024,108. This enhancement promotes the formation of strong bonds upon frying, which enables the food pieces to stay together firmly, both in the cooking mold and afterwards when the unified food serving is removed from the mold, optionally garnished, and served.
The coating formulations of the present invention have the added benefit of improving the eating quality of the coated food pieces, by imparting a crispy, crunchy texture thereto. A further quality of the coating formulations of the present invention is that this crispy, crunchy texture is maintained for extended periods of time when the product is held under a heat lamp.
Batter mixes for back-of-the-house food coating compositions in accordance with the present invention comprise 35%-75% adhesion component, 2%-11% viscosity component, and 5%-50% crispness component. Batter mixes for processor food coating compositions in accordance with the present invention comprise 30%-70% adhesion component, 10%-25% film-forming component, 3%-9% viscosity component, and 8%-40% crispness component. Both compositions may additionally comprise 0.1%-2% leavening component, 0.1%-15% flavoring component, 0.1%-1% coloring component, and/or 0.1%-1% processing aid.
The present invention also provides unified food serving products that are characterized by a persistent crispy, crunchy texture and produced by a process that comprises: providing multiple pieces of a food to be cooked; applying a xe2x80x9cback of the housexe2x80x9d food coating composition to each piece of food while in a mold; immersing the mold in a heated deep-frying medium to cook the food and join the pieces into a unified food serving reflecting the shape of the mold; and removing the unified food serving product from the deep-frying medium and the mold. Another process according to the present invention provides unified food serving products, characterized by a persistent crispy, crunchy texture, produced by a process comprising: providing multiple pieces of a food to be cooked; applying a xe2x80x9cprocessorxe2x80x9d food coating composition to each piece of food; individually freezing each piece of food; adding the frozen pieces of food to a mold; immersing the coated pieces of food in a mold in a heated deep-frying medium to cook the food and join the pieces into a unified food serving reflecting the shape of the mold; and removing the unified food serving product from the deep-frying medium and the mold.